Deodatus Curtis of Braintree, Rhode Island

The power of a storm determined the fate of Deodatus Curtis and his descendents. Had it
been stronger than it actually was, the ship on which he traveled would have
probably gone to the bottom and the line would have ended there. A weaker one would have
not carried away three of the ships masts and prevented it from reaching its intended
destination of Barbados where some other line of descendents would have come about. As it
was, the ship was forced to Martha's Vineyard, Deodatus purchased land in Braintree,
Connecticut, married, and had two children. So began the Deodatus Curtis line in America.

This is how this Curtis came to be in America according to family tradition. There are other theories on just where Deodatus was going, but it is certain that he purchased land in Braintree in 1640.

The particular line of the family documented here lived primarily in Ohio from 1791
onwards. Eleazer Curtis, his family, and his brother made the trip from Warren,
Connecticut as was described by Walter Curtis.

I am indebted to a book written by Laura Guthrie (Curtis) Preston for the information
for generations one through seven. I have a lot more information on the Descendant's of
Deodatus Curtis than is presented here. If you think you are related to Deodatus Curtis
drop me a line.

Eleazer William Curtis, his siblings, wife, and children are also identified in a
series of letters that were passed down through the family by his Eleazer's daughter
Lethe, who was my great grandmother. The letters sent in the 1840's and 50's were
addressed to Hockingport, Athens County, Ohio. A second group sent in the 1880's were
addressed to New England, Wood County, West Virginia.

Generation One

Deodatus Curtis left England in 1639 or 1640. He ended up in Braintree, Massachusetts
as is documented in Pope's Pioneers of Massachusetts: "Deodatus Curtis,
planter, Braintree, bought land in 1640". He may have been on his way to Barbados
when, as a result of a violent storm, his ship was forced to detour to Martha's vineyard.
A destination of Barbados is suspected because Deodatus owned land there.

As a testament to the early arrival of Deodatus Curtis at Braintree, his son's birth is
the first entry under births in the Braintree Vital Records. When Solomon was eighteen,
his family moved to Swansea, Mount Hope Neck, Massachusetts (now Bristol, Rhode Island). On
1 September 1681, he attended the first town meeting.

Swansea was where the first attack
was made by chief Metacom (called King Phillip by the English) in King Phillips War six
years before. Solomon Curtis's arrival was probably part of a resettlement of the area,
the first settlers having been wiped out.

The farm owned by Eleazer Curtis in Warren is still known as 'Above all' because of its
location on the level top of a hill (at least it was in 1945).

Eleazer started out his military career as an ensign of Second company or train band in
1770. In 1771 he was made lieutenant. On 1 May 1775 he was authorized by Governor Jonathan
Trumbull to raise a company of one hundred men for the defense of the Colony. This
probably became the 7th Company for which Eleazer was commissioned captain. After Fort
Ticonderoga was taken by Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, and their men, Governor Turnbull
ordered Colonel Benjamin Hinan's Fourth Regiment to secure the fort and Crown Point
against recapture. In 1778, the now Major Curtis was given command of Colonel Enos'
Regiment.

After the war, Eleazer was sent to the Connecticut Convention at Hartford as
representative for Warren. The Convention convened 1 Jan 1788 and Eleazer voted 'aye' for
the ratification of the United States Constitution.

At the age of 16, Eleazer enlisted in the Continental Army just 15 days after Lexington
and Concord. As a private in Captain Noadiah Hooker's Company he took part at Roxbury and
in the siege of Boston until the end of his term of service. Four months after
Washington's victories at Trenton and Princeton, Eleazer enlisted again on 21 April 1777
as a private in Captain Albert Chapman's Company for a term of 8 months. This company was
part of the Seventh Regiment, Connecticut Line, commanded by Colonel Heman Swift, which
fought at Germantown 4 October 1777. Eleazer then spent what must have been an
unforgettable winter with Washington at Valley Forge.

He was present at the battle Monmouth on 28 June 1778. If he was with Joseph Martin who
was also of the Connecticut Line, then he was responsible for holding back a British
attack while the Americans made an orderly retreat. This gave the American artillery time
to place some well-aimed fire on the British who "reluctantly crawled back from the
height which they had occupied and hid themselves from our sight" as Joseph Martin
put it. In Page Smith's A New Age Now Begins Smith characterizes the action:
"This small episode may well have marked a turning point in the battle. As we have
noted of other engagements, the key to most battles usually lies in some incident,
typically involving a handful of soldiers who, quite outside the view of their commanding
general, attack or defend in what subsequently turns out to have been the crucial action
of the whole engagement." (P. 1096).

Four years after Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, Eleazer married Eunice Starr. They
lived in Warren for nine years and had five children before deciding to make for Ohio.

The Adventure of the Northwest

Before and after the Revolutionary War, a number of land companies were formed to sell
land in the west to settlers. One of these was Vandalia Company which attempted to
create the state of Transylvania in the Tennessee-Kentucky area. Another was the
Ohio Land Company which was formed in Boston, Massachusetts on 4 March 1786. The
first directors were General Rufus Putnam, Colonel John Brooks, Major Winthrop Sargent,
Captain Thomas Cushing, and Reverend Manasseh Cutler. On 27 October of the
following year, the company received a grant of 1,781,760 acres for the sum of $1,000,000 from
the Congress of the Confederation.

A few months later two groups of men, one from
Connecticut and the other from Massachusetts, started for Ohio. They most likely
traveled down the Ohio River from its headwaters as it was to
become a common route. On 7 April 1788,
they arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum aboard a flatboat and three log canoes.
At that place they founded the first city in Ohio: Marietta. In the next few years,
they were followed by many other settlers. By the end of 1790, the settlement
had grown
to eighty houses and a stockade called Campus Martius. In addition, other
smaller settlements sprang up in the area. Their peaceful existence
up to this time was about
to be upset.

During the spring and summer of that year reports of Indian attacks spread
through the settlements. They
were at first assumed to be of the type that came to be expected when new country
was settled: kidnapped women and children, burned-out cabins, and the interception of settlers
coming down the Ohio River. In order to discover the seriousness of the situation,
the newly appointed governor of the territory, Arthur St. Clair. - Major Eleazer Curtis may
have served under him at Fort Ticonderoga - gave orders for Major John Hamtramck to
ascertain the Indian's intentions. Through a French trader whom the Major used for
this purpose, it was learned that at least three of the tribes in the area appeared to be
preparing for war. Governor St. Clair immediately began
assembling a force to launch a preemptive strike against the Indian strongholds along the
Wabash River. During the rest of the year, troops and supplies were assembled and,
under the command of Colonel James Trotter and later Colonel John Hardin, they made a number of
attacks upon the Indians, none of which were successful to any degree. Rather, they
had the opposite effect of infuriating the tribes that were attacked and bringing other
tribes into the fight who had been on the sidelines. On 2 January 1791, the
Indians attacked the exposed settlement of Big Bottom, forty miles upriver from Marietta.
All the settlers - men, women, and children - were killed and houses and barns were
burnt to the ground. The news of the Big Bottom Massacre flew from settlement to
settlement, up and down the river. Those that were too small to be able to defend
themselves packed up what they could and, along with their livestock, headed for Marietta
where the stockade was manned by twenty regulars.

After the massacre, General Rufus Putman of Marietta wrote to President Washington
requesting immediate support in defense from further Indian attacks.
Washington
appointed St. Clair commander of a force tasked with pacifying the Indians through defeat
in battle. Preparations for the campaign took all of the summer and it was not until
September that St. Clair set out. After having built several forts, he met
the Indians on 4 November at a branch of the Wabash. His force was defeated and
sent fleeing back to Fort Jefferson. The outlook could not have seemed much worse
for the settlers. The Indians could have easily destroyed the rest of the settlers
in the territory had they the organization and the will to do so.
Fortunately for the settlers, this didn't happen. Not knowing this, they
lived in a constant state of fear It was to this
situation that Eleazer Curtis and his family arrived at Marietta a few weeks later.

On 8 September 1791, Eleazer Curtis, his wife, and five children along with Stephen
Guthrie and his family and three unmarried men started from Warren Township, Litchfield
County, Connecticut for Ohio. They would have almost certainly known before their
departure of the massacre at Big Bottom and the attacks on immigrants traveling down the
Ohio River, yet they made the trip none the
less. Perhaps they thought that, with St. Clair in the field, the situation would be
under control by the time of their arrival. They were able to make the trip with
only the loss of one life due to an accident. And they saw no Indians. For four
years after their arrival they had to live in garrisons. After the first two years
Eleazer Curtis, Stephen Guthrie, their families and Truman Guthrie reoccupied the Newberry
Garrison where they could work their farms which were in the Newberry Bottom.

On 20 August 1794, General Wayne and his force defeated the Indians of the area in the
Battle of Fallen Timbers. On 10 August of the next year the Treaty of Green Ville
was signed with the Indians. The following spring, Eleazer moved down to his
property and built a cabin into which the family moved. He was able to enjoy this
now peaceful existence for five years before he died 7 September 1801 of a bilious fever.
Eleazer and Eunice are buried in the Newberry Cemetery.

CURTIS, Lysander b 24 May 1763

m Lovina Fox

Lysander accompanied his brother Eleazer to Ohio but returned to Connecticut after
having "taught school in a cooper's shop at Picketed Point". He also servered
in the American Revolution as he was a pensioner in 1840. There was a "Licun Der
Curtis," in Captain David Olmstead's Company which served in the Revolution from
Litchfield County, Connecticut.

When Eleazer was eleven or twelve, he took his turn standing guard for Indians on a big
stump while the men worked. On 21 Aug 1837 he purchased 80 acres at the Marietta Land
Office. The land was located on the Big Hocking River, near Hockingport.

The convenience of the Ohio River allowed the pioneers to travel far down stream in
search of a market for their goods. In 1810 Eleazer took a boat load of produce to New
Orleans, some 1000 miles distant, in search of a good price for their goods. They arrived
on 20 April to find prices depressed. After sending some money home to be paid to
different persons he had but twenty dollars left: "to get from this Soddom". He
had an opportunity to ship on a vessel to Pensacola, Florida. On his return, he would
start for home where: "I shall stay very content".

Eleazar and Esther are buried in the Hockingport Cemetery, Athens County,
Ohio

Sidney went to California for the gold rush for we find him writing letters to his sister in 1853 and 1854 from Sacramento, California where gold was first discovered. At some later date, he moved to San Francisco where he ran a business.

In 1867 Ruhama went to San Francisco, California via the Isthmus of Panama and lived
with her brother Sidney. She was still there at the time of the great earthquake of 1906.
Her house was one of the first to burn. She then went to live with her cousin, Stephen
Knowles in Cloverdale, where she died a year later.

Jason was an Ohio River steamboat pilot; at first on passenger steamboats and last on
towboats; he was recognized as one of the most competent navigators on the rivers between
Pittsburgh and New Orleans. He was Captain General of Harbor No. 25, Pittsburgh, Pa., an
association of river pilots, until shortly before his death.